Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) defiantly joins the nearly two thousand organizations and individuals who have spoken out against the arrests and deportations of visible, courageous activists and organizers in the immigrant rights movement by signing on to a letter to the secretary of DHS condemning the targeting of immigrant rights leaders and individuals associated with the sanctuary movement. This letter is spurred by the arrest of activists by ICE, such as Ravi Ragbir, Jean Montrevil, and Eliseo Jurado.

SRLP’s transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex (TGNCI) members and clients deeply understand what it means to be targeted, harassed, surveilled, and arrested for simply being, surviving, fighting for our rights. The immigrants amongst us doubly know this fear.

It is important in this reality to keep marching, keep shouting, keep supporting one another, for justice and transformative change. We demand that when we at SRLP, along with our ally communities and movements, fight for self-determination and immigrant, racial, and gender justice in public spaces – when we bring our TGNCI leaders to the forefront, so that all can witness our communities striving for our own dignity – we demand that we be able to do so without fear that we will be apprehended and incarcerated for asserting who we are.

We position ourselves today and every day in solidarity and hope for our immigrant siblings to be able to come home to their communities. Our immigration status does not define us. Our criminal arrests and convictions do not define us. Who we are, who we choose to be, what it is we care for, the strong communities we keep – we demand that that is how our value and belonging be judged by the United States government.

Here’s what else you can do now:

1. Write to Ravi Ragbir, who was recently detained, and send him love and encouragement.